Scintillator materials, which emit light pulses in response to impinging radiation, find a wide range of applications, including medical imaging, particle physics and geological exploration. In a typical scintillation detector for radiation detection, a scintillator crystal is coupled to light sensor, such as a photomultiplier tube (PMT), photodiode, or silicon photomultiplier. For single-crystal scintillators, it is often desirable to produce large single-crystals with low concentration of defects, both mechanical and optical. Depending on the application, it is also often desirable to achieve certain scintillation performance characteristics, such as yield and decay time. Efforts have been made to improve the scintillator growth process to reduce the concentrations of the various defects and otherwise improve the performance of scintillator materials and detectors. Nonetheless, there is a continued need for scintillator materials and detectors with improved optical characteristics.